A Lidsville movie

I actually hadn't heard that Butch Patrick story, I just remember hearing Sid & Marty say how lucky they were to get someone of his "star quality" for the show, what with him having been Eddie on The Munsters the previous decade. But it makes sense, because they've spoken very highly of Jack Wild and Johnny Whitaker, but not necessarily the same high praise for Butch. :|

Has anyone else besides me noticed that during that time, Sid & Marty tended to use who were by then considered to be "has been" actors on their shows? On Lidsville they had Butch who was a "has been" from The Munsters, on The Lost Saucer they used Jim Nabors and Ruth Buzzi who were "has beens" from Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (Jim also from both The Andy Griffith Show and his spin-off Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.), Far Out Space Nuts featured Bob Denver who was a "has been" from Gilligan's Island, etc.

Has anyone else besides me noticed that during that time, Sid & Marty tended to use who were by then considered to be "has been" actors on their shows? On Lidsville they had Butch who was a "has been" from The Munsters, on The Lost Saucer they used Jim Nabors and Ruth Buzzi who were "has beens" from Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (Jim also from both The Andy Griffith Show and his spin-off Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.), Far Out Space Nuts featured Bob Denver who was a "has been" from Gilligan's Island, etc.

Kind of like how everybody in recent years have gotten their panties in a wad over The Chipettes in harem outfits from The Chipmunk Adventure.

It seems like the censors never can make up their minds of what people can or can't do, especially as far as cartoons and children's programming is concerned.

The biggest example I could NEVER figure out is this: in an episode of Cow and Chicken, Mom and Dad went golfing, but when Dad missed a hole, he yells "Oh divot!" (an actual golfing term), yet people claimed he said otherwise, so after the initial airing, the line was dubbed... however, several episodes later, Red Guy actually exclaims "What's the problem? What's the problem? ! What's the **** problem? !"... and that was never censored.

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The stories I could tell you. The stories.

The censors always manage to catch sound-a-likes and innocent jokes like that (and scenes of violence... that no one has to have a 3 I.Q. to do).

Let's not forget the famous Road Rovers song about Russian surnames, and a kid named Sonov would be Sononovich. That one they not only had to recall, but fudge a scene with "new footage" to fill in that gap.

However, the Sam and Max Christmas episode gets away with prison shower room jokes. Twice. No kidding. Never heard anything about that.

But the worst one I've heard was a story from Reboot, where Dot Matrix innocently gives a sisterly cheek kiss to Enzo on his Birthday, and the ABC censor was fuming that was incest. Something that really ticked off the writers and creators.

Censors have dirty minds that place things in where they weren't supposed to be. It's like that episode of Recess where T.J. makes up his own G rated profanity, and they try to catch him for making up a substitute dirty word. (Yeah, yeah, "Who the Heck is Whompy Whomperson"... the intention to do that thing I did came first, the fan art was just before I started it). I reference this for a reason.

Censors have dirty minds that place things in where they weren't supposed to be.

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This isn't about the professional censors, but I remember reading a comment about Spongebob from a mother online, saying how much she hated it when Spongebob said "Fishpaste!" because it was "clearly cursing." I thought that was ridiculous, they go out of their way not to curse and she's still annoyed? I mean I loved that they found a way on that show to do angry frustration, without actually using a real curse word.

But the worst one I've heard was a story from Reboot, where Dot Matrix innocently gives a sisterly cheek kiss to Enzo on his Birthday, and the ABC censor was fuming that was incest. Something that really ticked off the writers and creators.

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Okay, see that doesn't make any sense! A sister can give her brother a kiss on the cheek, and vice-versa without implying incest! I seem to remember an episode of Dexter where Dee Dee is so grateful to Dexter for doing her a favor, that she kisses him on the nose. I don't remember anyone having problems with that.

But then again, I wasn't a fan of PPG, though I did watch it at first because back then, new CN shows were almost always good... now I clearly remember an early episode when Him hypnotizes the citizens of Townsville, turning them into enemies against the PPG... and at one point, he throws himself to Professor Utonim (was that his name), and licks his face. Now, how is it the censors have a problem with a sibling kiss, but not a prissy, one-can-assume-to-be-gay villain licking another man's face? Especially considering that censors for children's programming always act like homosexuality is so inappropriate to show on television (the lesbian episode of Cow and Chicken, that episode of Dexter where a villain was portrayed as a gay stereotype, etc). But then again, there's speculation that "The Mask" episode of Courage was essentially the storyline for a forbidden lesbian romance, yet it's considered one of the greatest episodes of the show (especially since it was written by creator John Dilworth, who hadn't written for the show since Season One).

Censors have dirty minds that place things in where they weren't supposed to be. It's like that episode of Recess where T.J. makes up his own G rated profanity, and they try to catch him for making up a substitute dirty word. (Yeah, yeah, "Who the Heck is Whompy Whomperson"... the intention to do that thing I did came first, the fan art was just before I started it). I reference this for a reason.

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That was a realistic episode, because making up "G rated profanity" is a part of being a kid: kids LOVE to make up words to use in their vocabulary... that's how half of our slang comes to be, like Prickley said "I can't keep up with you kids and your gutter slang!" I use a LOT of these kinds of made up words in my writing, again, I don't write for kids (or adults), but I DO try to maintain a sense of childlike whimsy to appeal to the younger audiences. Why do you think I use the term "frog" as an adjective all the time?

But the worst one I've heard was a story from Reboot, where Dot Matrix innocently gives a sisterly cheek kiss to Enzo on his Birthday, and the ABC censor was fuming that was incest. Something that really ticked off the writers and creators.

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In another case on the same show, the censors would not let Bob say "hockey," because they claimed it was slang for... a mixture of, um, secretions and metabolic byproducts. Okay, how many of you knew that the word hockey ever had that meaning? But then, these are the same censors who would not let Dot Matrix have a normal chest, hence the "monoboob" in seasons 1 and 2.

I would definitely have gone over BS&P's heads and request them to be investigated. That instance sounded like hard core depravity that only the sickest people known to man kind know about.

Love those family values types. Minds sicker than porno producers.

I can almost top that, though. Ripping Friends.

Now, they got away with saying the word "turd" and in another episode showing a cat mentally defecating (and the poop in the litter box) among other things, but the only time they cut anything out of an episode was a cartoon hot dog going into a bun because there was something vaguely sexual about it.

Reminds me of how I was a little shocked when all of the sudden during the last season of Cow and Chicken, they started saying "crud" just about every other episode (especially Red Guy), because back then, even though words like "crud", "crap", "fart", etc aren't swears/curses/profanities/etc, they were considered "dirty" words to kids, even though AS kids, we said them all the time when our parents weren't around.

Oh... and speaking of C&C, remember all the BUTTS on that show? Not just Red Guy, but you had Cow's butt, I.R. Baboon's butt, other random animal butts, there was even an episode were Flem and Earl were completely naked (and Chicken was completely featherless) running through school to find towels, HOWEVER, there were clear shots were they weren't keeping their hands low, so you could see the artists and animators didn't even draw them with "parts" (similarly, another episode featured Flem and Earl supposedly lost at sea, but it turned out they were taking a bath together, which is disturbing when you think about it as an adult).

Even Dexter liked to show his butt a lot... I remember when I was a little kid, I was howling when I first saw Mandark's debut episode, and we see Dexter dancing in the shower, shakin' dat booty at us... then later when he's depressed, and he's just standing there and we still see his booty, lol.

And let us not forget, there was also a "lost" episode of Arnold, where Phoebe passes gas over the microphone, while on stage in the auditorium, in front of the entire school, and she becomes ridiculed for it, especially Harold who continually chanted "PHOEBE FARTED! PHOEBE FARTED! PHOEBE FARTED!" I seem to recall Mr. Simmons also hesitating to say the word when he tried to councel her.

Fart's apparently okay now. And I've heard "sucks" or "sucked" on a few occasions (in the new Ninja Turtles series, Mikey said "It sucks being cold blooded").

Anyway, back to the subject at hand... I dunno if this was true or not, but I once read that they made an Electro Woman and DynaGirl TV pilot that never sold, and it was just another case of "let's make fun of how bad it is and how we loved it ironically".

Hey, you ever read that Animaniacs comic book with Electro Walter and Dynasquirrel?

Fart's apparently okay now. And I've heard "sucks" or "sucked" on a few occasions (in the new Ninja Turtles series, Mikey said "It sucks being cold blooded").

Anyway, back to the subject at hand... I dunno if this was true or not, but I once read that they made an Electro Woman and DynaGirl TV pilot that never sold, and it was just another case of "let's make fun of how bad it is and how we loved it ironically".

Hey, you ever read that Animaniacs comic book with Electro Walter and Dynasquirrel?

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I saw that comic book. They said that show was what almost completely cost Slappy her career. And she asked Walter how many cereal box tops did he have to send in to get this show.

By the way, I have heard of that 2001 pilot for a new Electra Woman and Dyna Girl series- and I'm pretty sure it does go the parody route for the most part. I've also heard it gets kinda risque. But if you're interested- it's on Youtube.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iuvnexJrVI

Getting back on the subject of senseless censorship (I know, I'm sorry I keep doing this, but thoughts keep coming to my mind on these subjects), here's one that really made me go "Huh?"

Glee. Doing some kind of sendup of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and doing a cover of "Sweet Transvestite" (which didn't sound very good)... now here's what confuses me... they kept the lyrics, "By night I'm one h e l l of a lover", BUT, they changed the chorus from, "Sweet TRANSvestite from TRANSexual TRANSylvania", to "Sweet TRANSvestite from sensational TRANSylvania"? Not only does that not make sense, but it really screws up the lyrics of the song, because that was kind of the point of the chorus... again "TRANSvestite from TRANSexual TRANSylvania".

Oh yeah I remember reading the same thing in Jerry Maren's book. Maren is perhaps best known as the Lollipop Munchkin from The Wizard of Oz, but he also played several characters on Lidsville, inside the costumes.

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Billy Barty was another great one who worked alot on many (if not all) of the Krofft productions (he also played Sigmund).

That's funny about Charles Nelson Reilly, didn't he also do the live shows when they toured with the Brady Kids?

Glee. Doing some kind of sendup of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and doing a cover of "Sweet Transvestite" (which didn't sound very good)... now here's what confuses me... they kept the lyrics, "By night I'm one h e l l of a lover", BUT, they changed the chorus from, "Sweet TRANSvestite from TRANSexual TRANSylvania", to "Sweet TRANSvestite from sensational TRANSylvania"? Not only does that not make sense, but it really screws up the lyrics of the song, because that was kind of the point of the chorus... again "TRANSvestite from TRANSexual TRANSylvania".

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In the context of the show they HAD to clean up stuff so they could perform it in front of a class. Plus, if I can remember the plot, the kid who was going to play Frankenfurter was pulled by his parents from doing the play, and one of the girls took it over.

Which brings me to this... I've noticed a LOT of Alvin and the Chipmunks covers have "cleaned up" lyrics... a "School's Out For Summer" cover on a Video tape had "School's Ancient History" instead of "School's been blown to pieces". And another example, when they covered "Heartbreaker" they replaced Sinner with singer. YET when they did Time Warp, they kept the part about "Voyeuristic intentions."

Soooo getting back to the movie... any details on which celebrities they're gonna get to voice the Hats? Why do I have a feeling this is going to turn into a knockoff of Cars on some level?

That's funny about Charles Nelson Reilly, didn't he also do the live shows when they toured with the Brady Kids?

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I don't know about that, but here's something else about him that I find interesting...

Again, CNR HATED doing Lidsville so much because of the makeup and whatnot, yet he later had his OWN Saturday morning cartoon, where he wore this big, plushy, fleecey crocodile costume, called Uncle Croc's Block (the live-action Filmation show that featured off-beat animated parodies like Groovy Ghoulies, M-U-S-H, etc).

Groovie Goolies was never a part of Uncle Croc's Bloc. The shows that were features on Croc were absorbed into the syndicated "Groovie Goolies and Friends" when Uncle Croc was abruptly canceled.

I'm wondering about his thoughts in that one. Uncle Croc was a parody of 1950's style local kiddy shows that host cartoons. And the audience was too young to know or care about that. Shame... I've seen some live action segments of that one... and it was something else. Even better than the cartoons that interrupted it.